Range Control Center (RCC)

The Range Control Center (RCC) was one of four technical
buildings awarded in a construction contract to Pearce Construction
Company on 26 October 1950. The other three buildings were: 1) a
one-story transmitter station, 2) a reinforced concrete blockhouse
and 3) the receiver building - another one-story building. The three-story concrete block
building, which measured 231 feet by 63 feet, was originally called
the Central Control Building. Construction got underway on 7
November 1950, and it was completed on 30 November 1951. The
building later became known as the Range Control Center. As the name
suggests, the Range Control Center served as the central control
point for all range support of missile and space launches from the
early 1950s until 1 March 1995. In all, the RCC supervised
approximately 3,000 missile and space launches on the Eastern Range.
These included the Matador, Snark, Bomarc and Navaho of the
winged missile era, and the Thor, Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, Polaris,
Poseidon and Trident ballistic missiles of later years. The RCC also
participated in all the early space launches on the Eastern Range,
right up through the Space Shuttle and Titan IV.

After
more than 30 years of operation and 20 years of “piecemeal
adjustments in offices and work areas” in the building, a
three-phase modernization effort was carried out in the RCC in the
mid-1980s. Installation of new equipment went hand-in-hand with the
renovation of work areas, and new areas for the Lead Range Control
Center and the DOD Manned Space Flight Support Office were
identified and relocated in 1985. New consoles for systems for
weather surveillance and range safety were also introduced during
this period.

Unfortunately, the long-term economy of Range operations -- and
the need for more integrated, flexible and faster operations --
worked against the RCC. Taking consolidation and automation as its
principal themes, the Air Force made its Test Operations Control
Center (TOCC) the number one Improvement and Modernization initiative
at the Cape in the late 1980s. On 1 March 1995, the 45th Space Wing
declared the TOCC operational, ending the RCC era. All remaining
range functions had to be out of the RCC by 1 December 1995 to make
way for a remodeling contract that would turn the building into
administrative spaces for the 5th Space Launch Squadron. The Range
Contractor, CSR, was out of the building, now known simply as
Building 1645, by mid-November 1995. The 5th Space Launch Squadron
moved into the building in 1997.